![[VIDEO] What Is The Cloud?](https://compnetsys.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/GettyImages-952984968.jpg)
by Felicien | Mar 25, 2019 | Education
While you hear the term frequently and see the images of puffy whiteness illustrating the concept, you may still be wondering, “What is the cloud?”
Despite being a standard technology solution for many years, it’s still a good time to understand the basics of what the cloud is and how it can benefit your business.
What Is the Cloud?
Simply put, the cloud is a global network of servers accessed via the Internet. Many people incorrectly assume the cloud is a non-physical computing solution, when in fact the cloud consists of physical locations that house hardware, software, applications and services. Cloud computing delivers on-demand computing services on a pay-as-you-go basis.
There are three basic types of cloud computing services:
Software as a Service (SaaS). These services let users access software applications from an internet-connected device. Perhaps the most common is Microsoft Office 365, which provides access to the popular Office application suite.
Platform as a Service (PaaS). These web-based solutions are offered by third-party providers and deliver hardware and software, often for application development.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS). In this type of cloud, the cloud provider hosts infrastructure that would typically be stored in an on-premises data center, such as servers, networking hardware and storage.
How Prevalent Is the Cloud?
The cloud is becoming increasingly common in business today. According to IDG’s 2018 Cloud Computing Survey:
Nine out of 10 companies expect to have part of their applications or infrastructure in the cloud by 2019, with the rest expected by 2021
89 percent use SaaS in their IT environment
The average cloud spend for small- and medium-sized businesses (less than 1,000 employees) has doubled since 2016 to $889,000
Businesses are moving to the cloud to address the following:
Improved IT services deliver speed (71 percent)
Flexibility to react to changing market conditions (63 percent)
Business continuity (58 percent)
Improved customer support (57 percent)
Why Is the Cloud So Beneficial to Businesses?
Using the cloud has multiple advantages for businesses of all types. With the cloud, multiple users can leverage the infrastructure and services available in the shared space. At the same time, businesses can control and customize what is used and how it’s used.
Here are some of the major advantages of cloud computing:
Cost. Cloud services come at a predictable monthly rate, based on what’s selected in terms of capacity and services. Businesses will not need to purchase as much hardware and software. Companies also save on the costs of housing the hardware in on-premises data centers, maintaining those data centers and the hardware, and the power and cooling demands.
Convenience. The cloud enables your employees to access data and applications from nearly any device that’s connected to the Internet from anywhere. Files, work materials and applications are readily available securely from anywhere in the world.
Scalability. As businesses grow, so too does the need for additional storage capacity, processing capability or users. Cloud solutions allow for rapid scaling without the need to purchase, configure and maintain additional servers or to manage and staff large on-premises data centers. If the business has seasonal fluctuations, demand can contract similarly.
Security. Cloud service providers offer enterprise-level digital and physical security, ensuring your data is protected and monitored constantly. If suspicious activity is detected or unwanted threats are discovered, they can be identified, isolated and resolved before any serious damage occurs.
Recoverability. Natural disasters and cyber attacks can cripple a business. That’s why cloud solutions provide an added safety net for your data, applications and systems. Automated data backups, housed out of the region, ensure that if an incident does occur, your business can be back up and running with minimal if any downtime.
Collaboration. Cloud solutions allow for better collaboration, especially among teams in different locations. Collaborative tools like Google Drive, Salesforce and Basecamp allow users to create, edit, comment on, share and save documents in shared workspaces that can be accessed at the same.
Testing. Cloud computing allows companies to test concepts and move faster on special projects without having to wait for cumbersome procurement procedures or incur large up-front costs. New services, products and tools can be tested in the cloud and deployed faster via the cloud’s scalability features.
The cloud is likely to continue to be a source of innovation, efficiency and productivity for businesses large and small.
by Felicien | Mar 25, 2019 | Education
Windows 7 has had a great run, but Microsoft has decided that it’s finally time to retire the platform. Windows 7 isn’t being deprecated by customers as quickly as Windows would like, with more than 38% of all PCs still running the aging OS. It seems that businesses like to hang onto an operating system once it becomes stable, because even Windows XP still owns 3.3% of the market share after support ended in April 2014. Windows 10 is still the top operating system for PCs, but it’s only a few basis points above the much older Windows 7.
As Microsoft enters the final stretch for offering support for Windows 7, there are 5 things you need to know to keep your PCs stable and operating in peak condition.
1. Windows 10 Offers Better Security
Cybersecurity is one of the topics on everyone’s mind in the technology field, and Windows 10 offers additional security measures you won’t find in the older OS. Ransomware, in particular, is being targeted to computers running older operating systems such as Windows 7, because there’s the perception that updates and patches may not be put into place. Windows 10 has a significantly more advanced end-to-end defense stack than you’ll find on Windows 7.
2. Get Ready for Windows as a Service
Another key benefit of migrating to Windows 10 is the speed of releases. While Windows 7 and previous operating systems from Microsoft had an extended release schedule, the team behind Windows 10 will be pushing out updates approximately every 6 months. What’s more, the updates each have a limited lifespan of support, a move to encourage businesses to shift to a more frequent schedule of updates. This requirement can be a burden on an overtaxed technology department, especially when Microsoft is expecting the updates to be completed at least every 18 months.
3. Are Your Business Applications Compatible?
Organizations that put off an upgrade to the newest in Microsoft’s operating system lineup may be doing so due to a concern about lack of compatibility with current business applications. Turns out, this is definitely a consideration, as some organizations are having to roll back their Windows 10 upgrade due to interoperability issues with line-of-business applications. Application compatibility is an important consideration any time operating systems are upgraded, so Microsoft is providing free assistance with app compatibility as part of their upgrade program.
4. You May Need to Refresh Your Hardware
You may find that older PCs are not hardy enough to handle the requirements of a newer operating system. While it will make your upgrade journey more complex, it’s best to ensure that you’ve got the best possible start with computers that will handle the additional computational load that Windows 10 requires. This is one of the steps where it is helpful to get a second opinion from a trusted service provider, as upgrading and then determining that your legacy equipment won’t handle the new business apps and systems could require labor-intensive and expensive rework. The load from Windows 10 is not extremely heavy, but it could burden older systems.
5. Need Extra Time to Upgrade?
Of course, there’s always the option that you can pay your way into a few more years of Microsoft support for Windows 7. While Microsoft isn’t recommending this option, it could be viable for an organization that is deeply rooted in the Windows 7 ecosystem — at least for the short term. The need to upgrade eventually is inevitable, but this extension on the January 2020 deadline may allow businesses to have a more orderly migration than rushing to get in under the wire. If you’re ready to upgrade the majority of your hardware and have a legacy application or two that is incompatible with Windows 10, there’s always the option of running a virtual machine with Windows 7 until you’re able to patch or rebuild your incompatible software.
Whether you’re going to stick it out or ready to make an upgrade, you’ll need to keep in mind the age of your current fleet of PCs as you carefully weigh the costs and benefits of taking this step. What is most important is that your team has the support that you need to make decisions as well as the technical support in the event of any bumps along the road.
by Felicien | Mar 22, 2019 | Education
In previous years, the first clue that your corporate email has been compromised would be a poorly-spelled and grammatically incorrect email message asking you to send thousands of dollars overseas. While annoying, it was pretty easy to train staff members to see these as fraud and report the emails. Today’s cybercriminals are much more tech-savvy and sophisticated in their messaging, sending emails that purport to be from top executives in your organization, making a seemingly-reasonable request for you to transfer funds to them as they travel. It’s much more likely that well-meaning financial managers will bite at this phishing scheme, making CEO and CFO fraud one of the fastest-growing ways for cybercriminals to defraud organizations of thousands of dollars at a time. Here’s how to spot these so-called whaling schemes that target the “big fish” at an organization using social engineering and other advanced targeting mechanisms.
What Are Whaling Attacks?
Phishing emails are often a bit more basic, in that they may be targeted to any individual in the organization and ask for a limited amount of funds. Whaling emails, on the other hand, are definitely going for the big haul, as they attempt to spoof the email address of the sender and aim pointed attacks based on information gathered from LinkedIn, corporate websites and social media. This more sophisticated type of attack is more likely to trick people into wiring funds or passing along PII (Personally Identifiable Information) that can then be sold on the black market. Few industries are safe from this type of cyberattack, while larger and geographically dispersed organizations are more likely to become easy targets.
The Dangers of Whaling Emails
What is particularly troubling about this type of email is that they show an intimate knowledge of your organization and your operating principles. This could include everything from targeting exactly the individual who is most likely to respond to a financial request from their CEO to compromising the legitimate email accounts of your organization. You may think that a reasonably alert finance or accounting manager would be able to see through this type of request, but the level of sophistication involved in these emails continues to grow. Scammers include insider information to make the emails look even more realistic, especially for globe-trotting CEOs who regularly need an infusion of cash from the home office. According to Kaspersky, no one is really safe from these attacks — even the famed toy maker Mattel fell to the tactics of a fraudster to the tune of $3 million. The Snapchat human resources department also fell prey to scammers, only they were after personal information on current and past employees.
How Do You Protect Your Organization From Advanced Phishing Attacks?
The primary method of protection is ongoing education of staff at all levels of the organization. Some phishing or whaling attacks are easier to interpret than others and could include simple cues that something isn’t quite right. Here are some ways that you can potentially avoid phishing attacks:
Train staff to be on the lookout for fake (spoofed) email addresses or names. Show individuals how to hover over the email address and look closely to ensure that the domain name is spelled correctly.
Encourage individuals in a position of leadership to limit their social media presence and avoid sharing personal information online such as anniversaries, birthdays, promotions and relationships — all information that can be leveraged to add sophistication to an attack.
Deploy anti-phishing software that includes options such as link validation and URL screening.
Create internal best practices that include a secondary level of validation when large sums of money or sensitive information is requested. This can be as simple as a phone call to a company-owned phone to validate that the request is legitimate.
Request that your technology department or managed services provider add a flag to all emails that come from outside your corporate domain. That way, users can be trained to be wary of anything that appears to be internal to the organization, yet has that “external” flag.
There are no hard and fast rules that guarantee your organization will not be the victim of a phishing attack. However, ongoing education and strict security processes and procedures are two of the best ways to help keep your company’s finances — and personal information — safe from cyberattack.
by Felicien | Mar 22, 2019 | Education
The information that no business owner or technology director wants to hear: there’s been a data breach. These chilling words can put your brain into overdrive, trying to triage the problem before you even know the full extent of the problem. What will be the impact on customers? On staff? On vendors? Is this simply a temporary bump in the road, or will your business never truly recover? How you’re able to react and your level of preparedness will be the deciding factors in the level of devastation that a data breach can wreak on your business. A recent report from TechBeacon shows that it takes an average of 191 days — over six months — for companies to even identify a breach, much less begin remediation on the road to recovery. Even more frightening, with as many as 7 in 10 of all organizations in the U.S. suffered some sort of data breach over the past several years, with the average breach costing upwards of $3.6 million.
What Are the Immediate Impacts of a Data Breach?
Once you find that your organization has been the target of a cyber attack, your technology team and external vendor partners immediately create a plan of attack. This could include everything from launching an effort to stop the vulnerability that allowed the breach to ensure that your data is restored from external backups as needed. Each of these steps can take time away from your daily operations, while also negatively impacting your overall customer service, manufacturing, eCommerce and staff productivity in general. Plus, there are the additional costs associated with external consultants who are working quickly (and expensively!) to restore your operations and data access. There are also expansive regulatory issues to handle such as technical investigations and regulatory filings about the breach and impact on the public. You can quantify these costs with a little work, but there are some hidden costs that lurk behind the scenes in an extensive data breach. Organizations are reporting thousands of hours required by forensic analysts who are attempting to put together the true nature of the breach.
Loss of Data = Loss of Reputation and Loss of Business
Your customers trust you to be a secure citadel for their sensitive personal, health and financial information. How can you explain to the public that data breaches happen every day? Customers are much less likely to be understanding of your business challenges when they’re personally affected by a data breach. You need to have a plan in place to respond to data breaches urgently, transparently and with empathy, or you could lose a significant amount of business due to lack of consumer confidence in your organization. Finally, you’ll need to put a communication plan in place that includes informing all of your stakeholders about the data breach and how it could affect them. These costs and the time required to get your business back to full operations may make it sound appealing to consider cyber insurance.
Should I Invest in Cyber Insurance?
Just as with other business risks, it makes sense to protect against known threats such as fire, flooding — and cyberattacks. Unfortunately, cyber insurance can be incredibly confusing and there are no guarantees that the expensive investment you make in insurance will cover the specific incidents that could occur at your organization. Even comparing different benefits and offerings can be extremely complex and off-putting for business owners. Instead of buying this questionable insurance, many small to mid-size businesses are instead investing in cybersecurity solutions and comprehensive backup and data recovery strategies.
How Can I Protect My Business From a Cyberattack?
If you don’t have a plan in place to handle data breaches or other cyberattacks, it is never too late to get started! With an average cost per record of $148, according to the 2018 Cost of Data Breach Study, a little prevention against a cyberattack can pay major dividends in the future. Are you confident that your organization has all the safeguards and protective mechanisms in place to maintain adequate security or quickly discover a breach in the event of a cyberattack? A comprehensive cybersecurity solution provides you with a high level of protection that includes:
Active monitoring and reporting
Vulnerability assessments and remediation
Intrusion detection
Behavioral monitoring
Compliance reporting
Agile integration with internal platforms
Asset discovery
IT and business user training
Best practices and process recommendations
Extensive backup and disaster recovery planning
When you fail to plan for a cyberattack, you’re essentially planning to fail! In today’s world, it’s rarely a question of “if“ your business will be targeted and more a question of “when“.
What Are the Benefits of Active Monitoring?
Working with a partner who offers active monitoring of your systems means you have a cybersecurity professional on your side at all times. Someone who is familiar with the footprint left behind by intrusions, and intimately knows the steps required to heal the breach and regain secure control of your systems. Your technology services partner should invest in ongoing education and recommend an aggressive security posture to protect your business. With active monitoring, you may still experience a cyberattack, but you may be able to limit the intrusion to certain systems or records — effectively saving as much of your data as possible through quick action in executing a pre-defined strategy.
As you can see, the effects of a data breach can be far-reaching and extremely expensive. It’s crucial that your business is fully prepared for any eventuality, and that includes an extensive data breach. The faster you’re able to identify the breach and heal it, the better your chances are for long-term business viability. Your technology services partner can provide you with customized recommendations to help protect your business from this pervasive problem.
by Felicien | Mar 22, 2019 | Education
Back in 2018, Apple once again upgraded the iMessage app to include new messaging effects. Apple added these effects to enhance the messaging experience for iOS users. There are 13 different effects that you can use to add an attractive feature to your messages when using iOS 12 or later on an iPhone or an iPad. The bubble effects will also show up on iMessage for Mac.
Let’s look at the special effects that you can apply in the Apple Messages App.
How to Access the iMessage Effects
First, with messages open, enter some text. Type an easy message such as “Hello”. Then, force-press the blue arrow to the right. The effects screen appears. The effects screen is divided into categories that are posted at the top of the screen:
Bubble effects
Screen effects
Bubble Effects
There are four bubble effects:
Slam: Stamps the bubble down and makes the entire screen ripple
Loud: A giant bubble that shakes then settles
Gentle: A tiny bubble that subtly slips into place
Invisible ink: Covers the bubble in an animated blur – the blur disappears once you swipe the message.
Screen Effects
There are nine screen effects:
Echo: The Echo duplicates text that floods the screen of the recipient.
Spotlight: The incoming message is highlighted by a spotlight.
Balloons: Ascending balloons burst onto the recipient’s screen.
Confetti: Multi-color confetti sprays down from the top of the screen.
Love: An expanding heart pops out of the message.
Lasers: Lasers with sound effects shoot from one of the screen to the next.
Fireworks: Multi-color fireworks explode from the center of the screen.
Shooting stars: A starburst shoots from the left on the screen, blowing up as it reaches the right side of the screen.
Celebration: Fireworks and other celebratory effects spread out across the screen.
Once you’ve decided which effect you want to apply, touch the blue upward arrow to send your message with the effect. You can also press the ‘X’ to return to the message screen.
By adding these effects, you can enhance your iMessage experience.
by Felicien | Mar 21, 2019 | Education
There’s a new scam targeting highly-trafficked Instagram accounts, and anyone with several thousand followers on their account — including businesses and clients — are fair game to the fraudsters. The scheme masquerades as a false claim of copyright infringement, according to Kaspersky Labs, who first noticed the new way influential and popular users are being cajoled into giving up their credentials to attackers.
How can you tell if your company or a client is in the crosshairs? The first sign of attack comes in the form of an official-looking email, seemingly from the team at Instagram.
“Your account will be permanently deleted for copyright infringement,” the email threatens. Tripwire reports in a recent article that the scam then requires action in the next 24-48 hours that involves “addressing the claim” and “verifying credentials.” This is where the user is required to type in the account’s password, which hands over the keys to the social media account to the attackers. It doesn’t end there, though — Tripwire warns that an “email verification” is required in addition to the credentials verification, where the user is asked to choose their email provider and give up the username and password for that login as well.
Kaspersky warns the false emails from Instagram are extremely similar to actual Instagram addresses. They include “mail@theinstagram.team” or “info@theinstagram.team.” Protecting your business or your clients from giving up the information in the first place is paramount — once the information is handed over, scammers can then demand ransom to return the account, spread malicious content across the page, and of course, change the information required to assert control over the account, like passwords and security questions. Tripwire encourages managers of popular Instagram accounts to enable two-factor authentication to make it significantly more difficult for attackers to gain access to the account. Kaspersky advises staying up-to-date on best practices, like avoiding suspicious links and only logging into Instagram through the official app.
